Moar hanami!

Last week the sakura trees were in full bloom so of course, I took more pictures.

I wasn't sure that these were sakura until I saw a tree with a label on them (yes, some of the trees around here have little signs on them indicating species). I thought that the flowers were only white, but apparently, they can also be dark pink.

And a very pretty pink too.

Hanami has started!

Last week, I started getting excited about hanami and the budding of the sakura (cherry) trees. Well, they're still budding, but the ume (plum) trees have already started blooming. We went for a walk on the weekend and found some in the park near our house.

They're pretty from afar.

Hanami is coming!

Those little buds will become awesomeness!

Hanami (花 = hana = flower, 見= mi = see/viewing) is a custom that seems to consist of going somewhere nice, having a picnic and watching the cherry blossoms. It's not supposed to start around here for for a little more than a week, but I'm excited for it already.

Snow!

When I got here, I was told that it really didn't snow too much around Tokyo. So far this year, I've seen it snow at least three times. The first time, nothing stayed on the ground and it all melted immediately. The second time was last week and the snow stayed on the grass, but melted on the pavement. Then Friday evening and continuing into Saturday, this happened: the most snow Tokyo has seen in 13 years.

Now, I've spent my entire life living in a place that has some idea of what to do with snow. Where snowplows are numerous and on-call (though their efficiency varies from city to city); where people own snow shovels and/or snow blowers; where you can find bags of salt at the grocery store from about November until March or so. I've never been to a place that rarely experiences a proper snowfall when such a snowfall happened. So naturally, I wanted to see how people who rarely see so much snow react to the existence of this much snow.

Umbrellas in the snow...

Apparently the answer is "with umbrellas".

I'm not sure if this is only a Tokyo thing, but umbrellas appear to be the answer to every weather problem (as helpfully illustrated by daid here). I'm also not sure if it's clear from the photo, but the woman on the right is also wearing a poncho.

Now, the snow was a little wet, but it was easy to dust off and the umbrellas were definitely overkill.  It's a bit unusual though and something I've maybe seen happen in Canada once ever.

Umbrella and plastic
bags as shoes...

There were a few people wearing rain boots, but that's a bit more understandable (if you don't own winter boots, wearing the only boots you have makes sense). There was at least one guy who was wearing plastic bags over his shoes, which is just a little odd. I kinda get where he's going with it, but I'm a little impressed that he didn't fall down constantly.

Perhaps stranger than people using umbrellas to combat the snow were the people who had put chains on the tires of their cars. The roads were never especially bad since people had been driving on them as the snow was coming down so the snow didn't accumulate much. At most there were about five centimetres of snow in the middle of the roads where nobody was driving.

Why?

Granted, chains on tires at least serves a practical purpose, unlike lifting the windshield wipers on a car while it's parked. I have no idea what people thought this would accomplish, but people did it like it was a perfectly normal and sensible thing to do.

Maybe it's because people don't necessarily own things to scrape the snow and ice off their cars or they're worried that the ice will stick the windshield wiper to the windshield. All I know is that this is the only place I've seen anyone do this and I have no idea what it's supposed to accomplish.

Now, there were definitely some people who were totally dealing with the snow in a way that made sense. The people who presumably owned a store around the corner had cleared the walkway leading to the door and made a pile of snow for their kid to sled down. At the park, there were more kids tobogganing and some parents were making snow ramps for their kids (which is a total necessity for sledding). There were teenagers who had eschewed their umbrellas having snowball fights (though they were doing this across a street which was probably not the best place for it) and people who seemed to be lending each other shovels to clear out walkways.

Granted, the snow had started to melt by Saturday evening and by Sunday evening, the lack of salt on the sidewalks made everywhere a bit of a death trap. Now the roads and sidewalks are mostly clear again and everything seems to be back to normal. It was definitely fun while it lasted.

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Update: It seems that putting windshield wipers up before it snows isn't just a Japanese thing. In fact, googling it turned up a lot of people from the US discussing or complaining about this phenomenon. There's even a facebook group dedicated to complaining about this phenomenon. The theory is that putting your windshield wipers up before a snowfall will keep them from sticking to your windshield and make it easier to clean.

I definitely disagree with this because it's just going to mean that snow and ice will get to coat your windshield wipers on all sides and if they're lifted off the car, they can't be heated by the car when you turn it on. If the blades are stuck to the car when you come out in the morning, the easy solution is to just turn on the car and let it warm up (with the defroster on) while you clean the snow off your car. Then the windshield wipers will become un-stuck as the car heats up and the ice melts.

Nomihodai and karaoke: a perfect combination

Last week I had a pair of firsts in Japan: my first experience with nomihodai and my first visit to a karaoke place here.

We went out as part of a going away party for one of daid's friends at work. First, we went to a restaurant where the food was pre-ordered (which meant that I got to eat a lot of salad and French fries), but the drinks were nomihodai. So "nomi" (or more correctly: 飲み) is Japanese for "drink" and "hodai" (I don't know how this one is expressed by kanji) means "all you can for a fixed period of time" or something close enough to this. In Canada, there are places that will do something like tabehodai (all you can eat), but I'm not sure if it's strictly legal to do all you can drink, especially if there's a time limit.

At the restaurant, we had a two hour time limit on drinks and we'd arrived slightly late, but our arrival coincided with the first round of beer coming to the table, so this was fortunate for us. We looked at the drink menu and I decided that since all the drinks were the same price, I'd order a cocktail. However, I was too lazy to read all the kana so I found some kanji I recognized in one item 梅酒モ匕ト (umeshu mojito) and ordered it. I discovered that this drink was possibly the best thing to come out of a very connected world and ordered several more.

When our two hour time limit was up, someone got put in charge of deciding the location of the after party and we went off to a nearby karaoke bar. Now, karaoke in Japan is not the same as the most popular form of karaoke in North America. Instead of being in one large room and getting to hear strangers sing poorly to songs you don't know, you are in a smaller room with only your friends. There, surrounded by friends, you feel comfortable enough to sing ridiculous songs and generally make an ass of yourself.

I've been to one place like this in Canada, but it was not very good. It was at Pacific Mall in Markham and I seem to recall that there were very few English songs available, often with incorrect lyrics.

This place was much, much better. For starters, the venue supplied tambourines, maracas and blankets to those who wanted them. This means that when one does not have the microphone, one can still participate (or take a nap if you're only in the karaoke bar because you missed your last train). It also had a fairly impressive number of songs in English as well as some in German and French. There were possibly songs in other languages as well, but we didn't look for them.

Unfortunately, the waitress cleared some glasses
at some point.

There was also the little matter of the karaoke bar having nomihodai and the other matter that the price to stay from about 9 pm until midnight or so was the same price to stay there until 5 in the morning.

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and many beverages were consumed.

Some people had to leave early citing reasons like "work" or having to call family for the lunar new year, but a few of us stayed until the bitter end. All of us were pretty tired, but none the worse for wear.

10/10, would totally do it again.

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Gentle readers, 
I apologize for missing an update on Thursday. I'll try to avoid missing them in the future. To make up for it, if you have any questions feel free to pose them (in comments, on facebook, even twitter) and I'll answer them next Thursday. Unless nobody asks me anything, then I'll just carry on as though nothing happened.

Zoo trip

On the weekend, we went to the Inokashira Park zoo. It's a nice zoo, though it's much smaller than some zoos I've been to. It had a fair number of animals (most of which I forgot to photograph) as well as an area for kids to pet guinea pigs and some small rides (also for children).

Goats being goatly.

On our first pass, perhaps the most fun animals were the goats because goats are pretty entertaining when they're just being themselves and daytime is a time that they seem to actually like. They were housed with some chickens, which was an interesting combination. When we went by the first time, one goat was standing on something and trying to eat it at the same time while another was also trying to eat the wood.

We came back toward the end of the day and got to witness feeding time as well. The chickens tried going for the food at first, but then the goats stampeded in and they all got out of the way very quickly and snuck back to steal food when the goats were almost done.

Near the goats were some porcupines that were stubbornly refusing to get out of their sleeping area on our first pass (probably because they're nocturnal). The second time we went by, one of them was awake and pacing about, occasionally bristling up his quills. They make a very interesting sound when they move, it was very similar to the sound that leaves make when the wind blows through them. This seems to be a pretty good adaptation for an animal that lives in the forest. After a while of this, a little door opened up and the porcupine went into the building. The other porcupine, however, refused to get up. We saw it move its head and it seemed to be awake, but it promptly put its head down and pretended to be asleep when the porcupine keeper opened the door to its enclosure and tapped a broom on the cement and made various knocking sounds to try and entice it to wake up and come in. After some time, this porcupine also went into the building, presumably having made its point or whatever it was trying to do.

The capybara poses.

The zoo also had capybaras, which I was pretty excited about. I've known about capybaras since I was 10, but I'm not sure I've seen one in person. One was sitting still near the front of its enclosure watching the people who were watching it. The other one was hiding in a little shelter they had at the back.

We barely missed getting to see the elephant. It was an Asian elephant, which would have been nice to see as well since I think I've only seen African elephants in person. Probably in the summer it would be easier to see the elephant since it could go outside, but it was likely too cold for that.

This place also had some monkeys which had a fairly large place full of various toys, including a water slide (though it was probably too cold for them to want to use it). They were variously running around or climbing and jumping on things (where "things" includes "each other") and generally being pretty funny.

Omg, kitty!

There was also a squirrel area where you could walk amongst the squirrels. This was not quite so interesting to me, since I've had to evict squirrels from my balcony before. These squirrels were much smaller and kinda cute though. They're probably also the only squirrels I've seen in Japan, so I can see what the attraction might be for people around here.

The zoo only had one kind of cat and it was a pretty small one (like a large house cat). They seemed to have a lot of them, but they weren't all out on display.

There were a lot of other animals, but many of them were sleeping when I felt like taking pictures so I didn't take pictures of them (balls of fur don't photograph so well) or they were moving too fast (like the monkeys). I also hardly took any pictures of birds (thought there were many of those).

Fun with acronyms?

Yesterday daid and I were chatting and somehow the subject of the NHS came up. He'd forgotten exactly what it stood for, but that it was national health service... or system and we'd both forgotten exactly what the "S" stood for.

He suggested that the "S" stood for "sabretooth" and so this happened:

Obviously a candy striper sabretooth is the answer to everything.

Note that this has very little to do with the actual NHS apart from the acronym. Although I haven't experienced it, I don't think the actual NHS provides "service with a scowl" and it would be nice if all countries were sensible enough to have a single payer health system that includes such "luxuries" as dental and optical care (unlike, say, Canada). However, I suspect that a sabretooth cat would not have the best bedside manner and so the tagline was born.

Also, I know that the candy stripe uniform was a thing in the US (in the '40s, even), but it was the first outfit that sprang to mind.

Christmas in Japan!

If you know a little about Japan, you might know that the most common religions in this country are Shinto and Buddhism. If you know a bit more, you might know that more than 70% of people in Japan are not religious at all, really. At any rate, the percentage of the population who are Christian is something like 1 to 2%.

Some signs even look fairly permanent.

So why, you might wonder, am I posting about Christmas here? The answer is quite simple: Christmas is relatively popular in Japan. Complete with signs, lights, fake trees and Christmas carols in the stores replacing the usual store theme songs (yes, some stores here have theme songs) all wishing passers by a Merry Christmas in one way or another.

Obviously, the religious aspects are not popular and people do not get the day off work, but the part where people are encouraged to buy things for each other is very popular. Especially with the stores who want to sell more things.

Because everyone loves capitalism!

Even Kentucky Fried Chicken has gotten into the Christmas spirit, or rather, it has been in the Christmas spirit since I arrived at the beginning of November. While KFC is pretty omnipresent in Japan generally (Japan is its the third largest market after the US and China), the company has also convinced Japan that fried chicken is a Christmas food, so they start promoting special Christmas meals early (because they have to be ordered in advance) and dress the Colonel in a Santa suit and hat.

Colonel Santa brings you tidings of fried chicken!

It seems that Christmas has also become a romantic day, which is a more recent, but still interesting trend. It's a bit odd that Christmas has become a romantic holiday since Valentine's day (where women give men chocolates) and White Day (where the men give gifts to the women who gave them chocolate) exist here as well. It almost seems like Japan is making a point of being rough on single people. 

Second Thanksgiving and the really long fall

On Saturday, we went to a Thanksgiving party hosted by one of daid's friends. It was a potluck, which is normally fine since neither of us mind preparing food. Unfortunately, we still don't have a burner at our apartment (and we're never going to get an actual oven) so our cooking abilities are somewhat limited.

Luckily, we do have a rice cooker and there are surprisingly large number of things you can cook in a rice cooker, like this recipe I found a recipe for a vegetable hot cake. So we tried to make that, though we swapped out all the veggies for different ones, added some spices, sprinkled some cheese on it and doubled the batter. That last decision was probably not the best idea since we ended up cooking it twice in the rice cooker and then putting it in the microwave (which has a bake function that we still haven't really figured out) before it finished cooking on the inside.

In the end, we got something that reasonably resembled a hot cake and was pretty tasty. It also disappeared almost immediately at the party which is always a good sign. We made it again yesterday for breakfast using a single serving of the batter and it turned out much better. Clearly, this calls for more experimenting with the rice cooker. Perhaps the next step is to make some actual cake!

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One thing that has been really nice about living near Tokyo is the weather (though I will probably not say the same thing in the summer). Unlike back home, where the weather will shift from summer to winter in a week or two (and vice versa in the spring), it's still fall here. The leaves are still changing and the air is nice and crisp. It's getting a bit cold at night (though still above freezing), but during the day it's warm enough that one can almost do without a jacket.

Granted, I'm not sure that Tokyo has what I'd consider a proper winter at all since the temperature doesn't seem to drop much below 0°C and it doesn't snow very much. It's still nice to have a long fall since this is a relatively new experience for me.

Soba making, JAXA visit and more!

The conference I attended last week was fun, interesting and a little tiring (basically, how conferences are generally).  Since we had to eat out all week, we had some issues ordering food that wasn't full of meat (or with secret hidden meats), but we managed to do it. We also had a chance to impart some advice about vegetarian foods found at combinis (convenience stores) to another vegetarian we met at the conference who recently moved to Japan.*

On Friday, we went on the conference excursion which consisted of going to a cooking school where we learned to make soba noodles which was a lot of work, but not too difficult (just a little tricky at times). While we made noodles, others in our group made pizza dough then we had to go roll out our dough (which the instructors insisted on getting us to use rolling pins for), add sauce, toppings (corn was included among them because this is Japan) and cheese. I tried to add cheese before the toppings and was told this was incorrect. I acknowledged my "error" and was going to wait until the instructor went away to do it that way anyway, but he stood there until I'd put my toppings on and had nothing to add after the cheese. daid simply dumped all of his cheese onto his pizza before anyone could "correct" him.

Either way, the pizza was good, then we got to have some cold soba. For cold soba, the noodles are cooked, then chilled and served with a dipping sauce that contains dashi, soy sauce and mirin called tsuyu. You can add wasabi and scallions to this sauce if you like it that way and when you're out of noodles, you can also add some of the water the noodles were cooked in (sobayu) to make a hot drink.

After lunch, we went to JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center where we got to look at rockets and walk around inside a life-sized model of Japan's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) which is a laboratory called Kibo which means hope. As well, there were some models of Kounotori which is being used to resupply the ISS and we got to hear all about it, as well as the rockets being used to carry it up. 

After the planned activities were done for the day, daid and I wandered up to the University of Tsukuba where we admired the leaves that were turning colours as well as the campus. The campus is pretty hilly and there is sort of a floating sidewalk that runs through much of the campus connecting some of the hills (so you don't have to walk up and down a lot) and cars can drive underneath (so you also don't have to mix your cars with your pedestrians).

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On Saturday, we met up with one of daid's friends and drove out to the Ushiku Daibutsu (where dai = big and butsu = Buddha) which is the tallest statue in the world (according to Guinness). We went inside the daibutsu and looked around, then went to part of the petting zoo and pet some rabbits and guinea pigs, then we went off to a football (soccer) game.

We went to see the Kashima Antlers play, but we arrived at the stadium a bit late. This meant that as we were walking up to the stadium, we got a taste of how loud the fans were. We could hear them from at least 500 m down the street and when we got into the stadium, we found that most of the noise was coming from just the fans behind one of the goals.

It was something I've never seen before. I've been to see professional sports and I've seen some coordinated cheering, but this was a whole new level. First of all, it was coordinated cheering that went on for the entire game. Secondly, there were people who brought drums with them (which probably helped keep it so coordinated really) and there were other fans who brought really large flags to distract the other team when they took penalty kicks and the like. People at that end of the field seemed to spend the entire game on their feet jumping up and down and singing.

Unfortunately, they lost, but it was still a good match.

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*For reference, the mainstays of vegetarian food available in combinis consists of ume (pickled plum) onigiri (rice balls, sometimes wrapped in nori), kombu (seaweed cooked in some sauce) onigiri, wakame (a different seaweed) onigiri, shiso (a leaf related to basil used to flavour ume during the pickling process) and red bean onigiri and egg salad sandwiches. Sometimes there is also kimpira and inari sushi or some pastas (which the clerks will heat up for you) and the usual things like chips (minus the shrimp or whatever seafood flavoured ones).